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March 27 - April 2, 2009 14 www.independentweekly.com.au resources Heathgate names new president David Williams (right) has been named president of SA uranium company Heathgate Resources. He previously held the position of managing director of junior oil and gas producer, Drillsearch Energy. He has also been chief execu- tive of Epic Energy,where he managed the ownership and operation of more than $3 billion of gas and oil pipelines across Australia. He will take up the position at Heathgate from mid-April. Rio may sell assets A Geothermal energy plant in operation. Return of the steam age P Business Editor Kate Nash anax Geothermal can economi- cally deliver substantial clean power from its Penola plant to the nation, recent feasibility studies show. The company’s managing director, Dr Bertus de Graaf, said the SA-based company would start drilling its first production well in September and expects to have its first 4.5 megawatt demonstration plant operating within a couple of years. “We will be on the national grid by 2011 and plan to meet the power needs in the South East before we expand to Adelaide,” he said. “By 2015 we expect to have 10 wells and be generating enough zero-emission base-load power at a total cost of $63 per megawatt hour to supply 50,000 people in SA.” The Penola Project is part of the SA-based company’s Limestone Coast Geothermal Project, which is located in SA’s south-east, near Mt Bertus de Graaf. Gambier. The project has a Measured Geothermal Resource of 11,000 petajoules. One thousand petajoules is sufficient to power a 100mW power station for 30 years. “Keep in mind that 1000 petajoules in theory can produce 100 megawatts continuously and 100 megawatts is enough to supply 50,000 homes,” Dr de Graaf said. Pre-feasibility studies had shown the cost of Panax’s geothermal energy compared favourably to $107/ MWh for wind and solar energy, $62 MWh for gas-fired power generation and $55/MWh for black coal. Dr de Graaf said studies in the past five years in the Otway Basin, in SA’s south-east, had indicated the site could produce hundreds of megawatts of base-load power for up to 30 years at a competitive cost, with little impact on the environ- ment. This made the company well placed to meet the Government’s increasing focus on renewable forms of energy. “These projected costs are highly competitive with other renewable forms of power generation, such as wind or solar thermal, and are on par with gas-fired power generation but without the carbon dioxide emissions and associated penalties,” Dr de Graaf said. “The feasibility study has shown the Penola Project to have the scope to be of national significance in the quest to reduce carbon emissions through providing competitively priced, zero-emission base-load power.” Dr de Graaf said he believed the Penola Project, when opened, would be the first commercial grid-connected geothermal site in Australia. Geothermal works by drilling down through a hot sedimentary aquifer, where heat is extracted to drive a turbine for power genera- tion. The Penola Project is based on generating power from existing hot water or brine produced from a known sedimentary basin in the Penola Trough. Because the company’s focus is on exploring reservoirs containing hot geothermal fluids it has a shorter development time and is less risky than hot fractured rock geothermal projects, Dr de Graaf said. Mining giant Rio Tinto may sell more assets and reschedule debt should a proposed $US19.5 billion ($27.8 billion) tie-up with Chinese state-owned Chinalco fail to materialise. “We think (it) will go through but we have plans in the eventuality if other various governments or shareholders prevent the deal,’’ Rio chief financial officer Guy Elliott said today at a conference in Singapore. He said the alternatives could include bond issues, more asset sales, a rights issue, a rescheduling of debt or a combination of them. Under a proposed deal, China’s top aluminium company will pay $US12.3 billion for stakes in Rio’s iron ore, copper and aluminium assets and $US7.2 billion for convertible bonds that would double its equity stake in Rio to 18 per cent. Australia’s competition watchdog yesterday cleared Rio’s tie-up with Chinalco, rejecting at least one key argument against a deal, which still needs Treasurer Wayne Swan’s approval. – Fairfax Fyfe offers consultancy services in engineering, planning and surveying to Australia’s land, infrastructure and resource industries For further information please call Mark Dayman on 08 8364 1000 or visit our website. www.fyfe.com.au your remote area specialists